Monday, May 6, 2013

En l’honneur de

Time is an interesting thing. When life changing events happen, you feel certain set of emotions depending on the event. Could be anger, rage, sadness, grief, happiness, etc.. Then comes this concept called time. Some people heal over time, some people never do.

However for me (Greg), the longer time ticks away, the more the emotion builds up, but not in a bad way. May 4th marked the 6th anniversary of the passing of my father. He passed away from Leukemia in the University of Penn hospital in Philadelphia, PA.

My father had a passion for railroads. He loved everything about them from the caboose's to the old steam locomotives and everything in between. When I moved out to southern Utah, I met my neighbor, Kurt Sheerwood, who works for the Union Pacific Railroad who reminded me a little of my father in the sense that he also had a passion for railroad history. On March 23, 2012 he took me for a ride out into the middle of nowhere following the UP tracks and various tunnels to get some photographs. I brought along my dad's 1880's Pennsylvania railroad signalman's lantern and we stop at a specific spot. And then this photo happened...

This photo is called En l'honneur de (French for "In Honor Of"). I was informed that this stretch of track was laid in the 1880's and here sitting on it was my dad's lantern also from the 1880's. This is my tribute photo to my dad. This photo captures my dad's true spirit better than I could ever put into words. I have thought about doing one more photo with this lantern, but have decided not to. This lantern will never be photographed again.

5 prints were made of this photo and they all belong to family. The family agreed to give one of the 5 to Kurt as our way to say thank you. Because, if it wasn't for Kurt... this photo would have never happened.